"Yes, you have guessed half--but
the wrong half."
"I am glad to hear it."
"Ah!" put in the old man sarcastically, "Matilda will never marry again,
I'm sure; she loves her old dad too much and feels far too happy at home
to do that."
"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed John scornfully, "I did not mean Matilda, I was
not thinking of her. Ho, ho, ho! Madame Langai imagines that _she_ is
the only person in the house whose hand can be wooed and won."
Dame Langai, with a shrug, looked incredulously round the room to see if
there was anybody else who could possibly become the object of the
baron's sighs. All at once her eyes accidentally encountered those of
Henrietta, and immediately she knew even more than her brother John did.
For she now clearly understood three things: the first was that
Henrietta had taken in John's meaning more quickly than she had done,
the second was that John had brought the suitor to the house on
Henrietta's account, and the third was that Henrietta loathed the man.
She at once bade Miss Kleary give Henrietta an extra lesson on the piano
in the adjoining room, and when they had taken her at her word and
disappeared, she said to John in her usual quiet, mincing tone:
"You surely do not mean to give Henrietta to that man?"
"Why not, pray?"
"Because she is still a mere child, a mere schoolgirl; five years hence
it will be quite time enough to provide her with a husband.
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